UT Collections

Internationally recognized cultural theorist, creative writer, and independent scholar Gloria Evangelina Anzaldúa, one of the first openly lesbian Chicana writers, played a major role in redefining Chicana/o, queer, feminist and female identities, and in developing inclusionary movements for social justice. Her theories of mestizaje, the borderlands, and the new mestiza, as well as her code-switching, have had an impact far beyond the field of Chicano/a studies. Her insistence on community and coalition-building united feminist concerns with issues of race, gender, class, sexuality, health, and spirituality. Anzaldúa also played a formative role in the development of Queer Theory.

The discovery of the National Police Historical Archive in 2005 opened an extensive and timely resource for the study of Guatemalan history and human rights in the region, spanning a broad array of topics from Guatemala's armed conflict between 1960 and 1996 to the sexually transmitted disease experiments performed at the behest of the United States government in the 1940s. This site currently includes over 10 million scanned images of documents from the National Police Historical Archive. This digital archive mirrors and extends the physical archive that remains preserved in Guatemala as an important historical patrimony of the Guatemalan people. To make best use of this resource, we suggest taking some time to read the tutorial and examples found on the About this Site page, learning the organizational structure of the National Police, and then patiently exploring the archive. This is not a full text search engine like Google, but rather the digital iteration of what you would encounter working in the massive paper archive in Guatemala. When you go to an archive, you will seldom find the exact document you are looking for right away. It will often take many hours of investigation to find relevant documents, if they exist at all. This Archive is arranged in accordance with the professional archival principles of provenance and original order to reflect the Guatemalan National Police administrative structure, and understanding that structure is a valuable way to start.

Gustavo C. García was an attorney who advocated on behalf of Chicano rights to education and adequate workplace conditions. García is most known for his arguments against jury segregation in the Hernandez v. The State of Texas case that reached the U.S. Supreme Court in 1954. The García collection is small and includes photocopies of correspondence, legal documents and newspaper clippings reflecting his career-long involvement with Chicano rights.

Personal papers of activist and lawyer Jennifer Harbury document her efforts to discover the fate of her husband, Mayan Guatemalan guerrilla leader Efraín Bámaca Velásquez, and to pursue justice for his death in the early 1990s.

Joe Bernal was a Texas legislator who advocated for Mexican-American rights. His work was primarily focused on legislation for bilingual education, minimum wage, health care and civil rights. Toward the end of his career, Bernal also served on the boards of several organizations, including ACTION, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) and the Democratic National Committee. Materials in the collection include documents on a wide range of topics, such as Bernal's political campaigns, the Commission on Mexican-American Affairs, MALDEF, housing, equal employment opportunity and education. Some publications and ephemera from political campaigns are also included.

Dulles is the author of Yesterday in Mexico: A Chronicle of the Revolution, 1919-1936; Vargas of Brazil; Unrest in Brazil; Anarchists and Communists in Brazil, 1900-1935; and Brazilian Communism, 1935-1945, among other books. The collection includes summaries of oral and written interviews conducted by Dulles between 1961 and 1977 with leading figures in the Communist movement in Brazil and in Brazilian politics. There are also microfilmed pamphlets, periodicals, typescripts, clippings, handbills, and circulars relating to the Brazilian Communist Party. Papers include information on internal disputes between Brazilian communists, notes on social and political conditions in Brazil, informational letters to party members, and propaganda and doctrinal works.

The José Angel Gutiérrez Papers gather together information on the career and interests of the political organizer who founded the Raza Unida Party and other Chicano organizations in the 1960s and 1970s. Materials originate from Gutiérrez's work with the Committee for Rural Democracy, Crystal City Independent School District, the Raza Unida Party, Zavala County Economic Development Corporation, and Zavala County Health Association, among others. Issues included in the collection range from rights to education and health, farm workers' and immigrants' rights, and the economic development of the border region. Correspondence, legal documents, Gutiérrez's writings, audio-visual materials and political artifacts are included in the collection.

José de la Luz Sáenz was a founding member of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), serving on the LULAC Board of Trustees from 1930-1932. As a young man, Sáenz fought for the U.S. Army in World War I, and following the war he published a diary arguing that Mexican American service to the U.S. military should translate into the full realization of Mexican American civil rights. These experiences and publications helped to inspire the Mexican American rights movement in Texas and the foundation of organizations such as LULAC. The Sáenz Papers include biographical materials for Sáenz, his professional and activist correspondence and his written works, published or unpublished.

Charles Edmund Horman, a Harvard educated American freelance journalist, was abducted, tortured, and executed in Chile during General Augusto Pinochet's coup d'état that began on September 11, 1973 to overthrow the government of Salvador Allende. The Hormans sued Henry Kissinger and Nixon Administration officials over Charles Horman's wrongful death and its concealment. The collection contains materials written and collected by Joyce Horman and Edmund Horman, wife and father of Charles Horman, that document events resulting from Charles Horman's death.

Mexican American civil rights advocate, educator, sociologist and anthropologist Dr. Julian Samora is considered to be the first Mexican American to receive a Ph.D. in Sociology and Anthropology. His research interests included the delivery of health services, rural populations in urban settings and the rural poor, Mexican immigration and the movement of Mexican Americans along the U.S.-Mexico border, population studies, and the educational status of youth and adults. He was co-founder, along with Ernesto Galarza and Herman Gallegos, of the Southwest Council of La Raza, now the National Council of La Raza. He served on boards or as a consultant to many organizations including, among others, the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Commission, the Indiana Civil Rights Commission, the Mexican American Legal Defense ' Education Fund, the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the President's Commission on Rural Poverty, the President's Commission on Income Maintenance Programs, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, and the United Way. The collection is comprised of correspondence, written works, personal and biographical materials, organization records, photographs, audiovisual materials, and Samora’s personal library.